Islamabad all set to host Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference

ISLAMABAD: Monday sees Pakistan hosting the senior officials’ meeting of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process in Islamabad, where focus will remain on Countering Security Threats and Promoting Economic Connectivity, the theme for this year’s Ministerial Conference.
Pakistan is the co-chair for 2015 with Afghanistan (permanent co-chair). It will host the fifth Ministerial Conference at Islamabad later this year.The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was launched in 2011 to bring together regional countries to promote peace and prosperity in Afghanistan through concerted efforts of participating and supporting countries as well as international and regional organisations engaged in the process.
‘Heart of Asia’ countries include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
Though relations with New Delhi remain frosty, nevertheless, India will be represented by Rudendra Tandon, joint secretary dealing with Pakistan.For Pakistan hosting the senior officials’ meeting comes at a time when bilateral relations with Afghanistan are on the mend, better than they have been for decades, though problems related to the Afghan Taliban still remain.
An important step for building trust between the two sides comes with an agreement between the intelligence agencies of both countries where efforts will be made to jointly tackle militancy in several areas including on the Pak-Afghan border.
Economic connectivity which will form part of the deliberations is a significant topic given demands of opening up land routes to Afghanistan.Spokesman at the Foreign Office giving details of today’s (Monday) meeting says that the meeting will be co-chaired by Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, and Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. Representatives from other 12 participating countries, 16 supporting countries and 12 regional and international organisations have been invited to attend the meeting.